


Blind spot

by Sgladiate



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood and Violence, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fighting pit, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Clarke, season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-29 04:18:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15064994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sgladiate/pseuds/Sgladiate
Summary: Set after 5.07 - What if Clarke was forced to fight against Octavia?





	Blind spot

The noise around her faded into nothing and all she could concentrate on was the erratic pumping of her heart. She blinked, forcing her eyes to focus. Octavia black eyes stared back at her.

“Are you sure,  _ this _ is what you wanted?” Octavia’s voice was smooth and unrevealing.

“Does it matter? Nothing I’ll say now will change your mind.”

Octavia stoic expression broke and she smirked. 

“I guess you know me to well. Regardless, I’d like you to answer.”

Clarke hesitated. She wanted to ignore the woman and quit playing her games, but that would aggravate her further. She needed Octavia to think she was in control.

“It’s not what I wanted, but there was no other way.”

“And Wanheda would know” Octavia said in a monotonous voice, taking a step closer to Clarke. “Hoist her up!”. Her guards quickly responded, digging their fingers into her sore arms as the pulled her up. Her legs felt unsteady from not having been used in so long.

“I can understand why you did what you did. To protect your people. But there’s one thing Clarke that you’ve forgotten.” Octavia’s hand reached out to her chin, forcing Clarke to meet her eyes.

“Madi is part of Wonkru.” Octavia whispered, suddenly moving her hand away. Clarke saw red, feeling her impassive mask cracking. Octavia arched her eyebrow before turning her back to Clarke and heading back to the cell’s door.

“However, I understand you were doing this as you thought you were protecting Madi, and thus I will give you the chance to redeem your wrongdoings.” She paused before slowly turning around to once again meet Clarke’s eyes.

“Tomorrow you will fight me in the pit.” The doors clicked shut leaving Clarke alone,  replaying Octavia’s departing words. She huffed feeling warm, angry tears stream down her cheeks.   
  


 

The plan was to get Octavia out for long enough for them to surrender to Diyoza. Clarke was going to sedate her during Octavia’s visit to check on her healing arm, whilst the rest of her friends would take care of her guards waiting outside. It never came to that. The night before as Clarke was getting ready to leave the medbay, sterilising the last piece of equipment, the doors opened with a thud. The sudden noise made her jump. 

“Surely somebody must have taught you to knock instead of just bargin-” She began too tired to care that her words were brusque, whilst turning to see who it was. The next thing she registered was the dull noise as something hard connected with the base of her skull. The last thing she remembered was the flash of white noise and then nothing. 

Clarke woke up with a pounding headache, feeling nauseous. She forced her eyes to open, frowning at the dim light. She was in one of the bunker’s cells and the realisation that Octavia somehow must have found about their plan caused her breath to hitch. Her thoughts raced to Bellamy and the rest of her friends. Where they being kept in one of the cells as well? Where was  _ Madi _ ? She felt the beginnings of hysteria start to  build up in her chest. Octavia was going to make an example of them to stop others from trying the same. She was no longer the girl who chased butterflies, she was - Clarke swallowed hard, she no longer knew who Octavia was. The six years have changed all of them, and she was no longer fit to judge Octavia’s character. The girl she once knew was a stranger.

Hours later, she heard the doors creak as they were forced to open.

“Are you sure,  _ this _ is what you wanted?”

 

*

 

It took far too much effort than necessary to try to make out individual faces gathered around the ring. Her head throbbed with each movement as she turned around her axis to try to find his eyes. She thought Octavia would bring him out to watch rather than leave if him in a cell if that’s where she took him. Clarke needed to see him one last time. She was aware that in the six years her fighting technique improved dramatically to what it once was by constant practise and by learning from the several guides that were left behind in the  library in Becka’s lab, but she doubted that alone would be enough to give her a standing chance against Octavia. She unconsciously bit her lip, feeling the copper taste of blood in her mouth. 

_ Where was he? _

Her thoughts were interrupted by the people’s chant of Octavia’s new name. Bloodrina. The steady rhythm of drums matched her heartbeat. The main doors burst opened, and the figure of the female warrior appeared causing the gathered people to roar her name even louder. Clarke swallowed.

Octavia met her gaze, and treaded towards the center of the ring. 

“We have gathered here today, as this traiter planned to destroy Wonkru and give us to the hands of the Others.” There was gasps emerging from the crowd, with many beginning to shout out ‘Traitier!’. Clarke was pretty sure that if they had bigger supplies of food, rotten items would have definitely made an appearance.  

“Clarke here will be given the chance to fight for her freedom, granted only if she manages to defeat me”. 

There was an uproar of menacing laughter as if the thought of Clarke coming out of this alive was totally absurd. _ And maybe it was.   _ Clarke dug her nails into her fists, trying to make herself ignore the surroundings and instead find the familiar pair of brown eyes. She needed to see them. She scanned the faces but they were all strangers, ideolising Bloodrina whether out of belief or fear, she wasn’t sure. Clarke briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them she turned her attention back to Octavia, searching for any weapons that Red Queen might have brought with her. She saw her normal sword tucked into her scabbard by her waist, and another in Octavia’s hand. She was pretty sure the girl had some knives stashed away by her boots. 

“Wanheda.” Octavia  snarled causing Clarke to drag her eyes to meet hers. The ring began to grow silent.

“Catch.” The girl threw the sword that she had been holding to Clarke. The blade caught the light coming from the sky above as it soared up towards Clarke. The blonde caught it with ease, feeling suddenly better knowing she had a sharp blade separating her from Blodrina.  She watched as Octavia reached out for hers, and she squared her shoulders. Octavia smirked and began circling Clarke in a predatory dance. Clarke forced her feet to move and the two of them began walking around the arena, each waiting to see if the other would attack first.

Clarke could feel Octavia’s growing impatience and knew an attack was imminent. Bloodrina suddenly leapt from her spot, her sword aimed at Clarke’s torso. The blonde jumped to the side, with sweat gathering at her brow at how close the edge of blade had been to her body. She barely had time to duck before Octavia was cutting the air at where her shoulder had been mere second ago.  _ She really isn’t holding back _ Clarke managed to notice before again barely missing the blade’s edge. 

 

The sky above them cracked as lightning struck somewhere in the distance. Soon cold droplets began to hit her overheated skin as she circled the ring, watching out for Octavia. The sporadic droplets quickly turned into a downpour, clouding her vision but her eyes never strayed from the opponent in front.

A sharp, large crack of thunder struck just outside of the bunker, causing a few to scream out in surprise. Octavia looked up when the vibrations from the noise traveled down the walls. Clarke took this as her chance, and maneuvered the sword so it would hit the raven haired girl in her injured arm.  The blade sliced the skin open. Octavia cried out, whether in pain or frustration at getting hit, Clarke didn’t know.

Clarke twisted to the side, ready to wield her sword again when Octavia let out an angry roar and came charging in, her body still bent from the the previous impact. She caught Clarke around the waist and pushed them both forward, her momentum tipping them to the ground. They both landed on the concrete ground, the impact knocking the breath out of Clarke’s lungs. Octavia moved so she was now straddling Clarke. 

 

Clarke watched as Octavia swiped her wet hair from her eyes with one hand, and reached out to hold still one of Clarke’s hands with the other. Clarke frantically scanned the space around her trying to locate her fallen sword when she realised that  Blodrina sliding out a knife from the pouch on her trousers. She blinked trying to get rid of the rain droplets obscuring what was happening in front of her, slowly coming to terms that this was probably the end. 

She scanned the crowd again and then she found him. He was being held by some guards, his faced pulled into a grimace. Their eyes met, and his lips moved, mouthing her name.

Clarke blinked twice, forcing herself to turn her attention back to Octavia. She summoned her remaining strength to push Octavia to get her body off of hers. Suddenly she felt Octavia’s knife dig into her collarbone, and be slowly dragged to just below the hem of her shirt. Clarke hissed, the pain helping her to push Octavia down onto the ground. She twisted her body so she could straddle her. Octavia threw a punch at Clarke’s face, momentarily stunning her with the impact and began wriggling to throw Clarke off. Ignoring the pain, Clarke grabbed Octavia’s forearms pushing them down.

Octavia whispered “I’m surprised that you managed to last this long.” 

She then bent her arms along with Clarke’s, pushing her elbow deep into the bleeding skin under her collarbone. Clarke’s grip on Octavia’s hands faltered, and the Blodrina threw her off. Clarke scrambled to her knees, trying put as much distance between the two of them as possible, but Octavia was already on her feet holding up her sword. Clarke cursed, shuffling backwards before her hand connected with the cold metal of her sword. She hoisted it up just in time to block the Red Queen’s rapidly descending weapon. Sweat poured down her forehead mixing with the rain droplets. It was taking all her strength to hold up Octavia’s sword that dangled threateningly above Clarke’s body. Clarke grunted as she pushed up the weapon, trying to get back up to her feet. Octavia’s iron grip allowed her to only move it less than an inch upwards.

“You know how this will end,” Octavia spoke, her voice bored.

Clarke’s arms were growing heavy, but then she realised that the possibility of Octavia holding on for longer than her with her injured arm was slim. She pushed her sword higher and it moved more than earlier - Octavia’s strength was diminishing. Clarke’s arms were now burning from the extended exertion. Taking a deep breath, she willed herself to use all that she had left to push the weapon to the side of Octavia. Octavia’s eyes grew larger as if the possibility of Clarke getting out from her sword’s trajectory never even crossed her mind. Clarke’s last push sent the ends of the both weapons into the ground, with both women still holding on to the grips of the swords. Clarke brought her foot up, kicking Octavia square in the stomach sending her sprawling to the ground. Coughing, Octavia tried to get up but Clarke was faster, her sword pointed to her neck. If Octavia moved an inch forward, the blade would pierce the skin. The black eyes staring back at her screamed hatred, but Clarke didn’t care. 

She won. 

The noise of the door hitting the wall registered in Clarke’s mind. Moments later, a familiar warm hand was placed on her shoulder. Bellamy whispered “I’ve got this.” before turning his head to the crowd. 

“We will share the valley with Diyoza’s people. We will not start a war that we cannot finish that only result in the destruction of the only piece of habitable land left. We’re making the best out of an impossible situation.” She heard Bellamy pause, probably waiting to see how Wonkru would react. There was silence. 

“The Eligius spaceship will be coming down tomorrow morning, helping transport us there. I suggest you spend the rest of the evening packing and saying goodbye to this place.”

Indra stepped forward shouting further instructions, and Bellamy walked back to Clarke. He looked down at Octavia, his eyes lacking the usual softness that she came to see everytime Octavia’s name would be mentioned.

“You’re still my sister Octavia. But it doesn’t mean I will allow you to destroy our only chance.” Octavia clenched her teeth and Bellamy crouched down by her. 

“I know a lot happened in the past six years, but please.. I need you to trust me.” He turned to Indra who gestures to the four guards standing nearby to approach. 

“You will be guarded until everything is sorted.” Indra gave the guards a nod and they turned to Octavia. Her eyes were fixed on Indra, a sign of betrayal clearly visible. They handcuffed Octavia guiding her to the exit. 

“You don’t know what you’ve just done” she spoke as she passed Clarke, but Clarke’s attention was already on Bellamy.  He strode towards her and she met him halfway. 

“Bel-” her voice was hoarse. His large hands encircled her wet face, stroking it gently as if he couldn’t believe she was really there.

“I thought I was going to have to watch you die Clarke, I-” His voice broke.

“I’m okay, we’re okay” she said softly, before leaning forward to embrace him. She tucked in her face in the crook of his neck, breathing in his smell. She finally felt safe.

Bellamy’s hands traveled to her arms, forcing them apart.

“Hmm?” She questioned, feeling that words were too difficult at moment. She was exhausted. The weight of everything that happened just hit her and she wanted nothing more than to stay in Bellamy’s warm embrace.

“You need to be checked over.” His eyes focused on her bleeding chest, and she saw his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed. 

“Okay.”

His arm travelled around her waist pulling her towards him as the began to make their out of the ring.

 

Tomorrow they would face the Eligius together. 

 


End file.
